Seek your source, merge in the Self and remain all one. Rebirth really means discontent with the present state and desire to be born where there will be no discontent. Birth, being of the body, cannot affect the Self. The Self remains ever, even after the body perishes. The discontent is due to the wrong identity of the Eternal Self with the perishable body. The body is revealed in all its glory. The body is the cross, Jesus, the Son of Man, is the ego or "I-am-the-body" idea. When he is crucified he is resurrected, a Glorious Self, Jesus, the son of God. "Give up this life if thou wouldst live."

A Jnani crushes the ego at its source. It rises up again and again, for him too, as for the ignorant, impelled by nature, i.e., prarabdha. Both in the in the ignorant and the Jnani, ego sprouts up but with this difference: the former's ego when it rises up is quite ignorant of its source, or is not aware of it in deep sleep, in the dream and wakeful states, whereas a Jnani, when his ego rises up, enjoys his transcendental experience with this ego, keeping his lakshya (vision) always on its source. His ego is not dangerous, it is only the ash-skeleton of a burnt rope; although it possesses a form it is ineffective. By constantly keeping our lakshya on our source, our ego is dissolved. Source: Conscious Immortality.

Dear Devotees,

Mistake lies in thinking that 'I' is what 'I' is not. How can 'I' be inert body? Sri Bhagwan has taught unequivocally, without any ambiguity whatever, that the body's movements are confounded with 'I''s movement and invariably misery is the result. Is it not? Truth is whether the body works or not, moves or not, 'I' remains ever free and happy. What a pity indeed! ajnani's 'I' is identified only and only with the body. Sri Bhagwan has taught that whole error lies there. Gnani's 'I' includes body, mind, et al, i.e., what is all. If only we could understand and grasp that it is only some intermediate, spurious, non-entity which arises and gives rise to all these confusion!

Dear devotees, Sri Bhagwan has taught elsewhere that the wrong identity of the Eternal Self with the perishable body is akin to suicide!

Therefore, I would like to share with all those who practice sincerely and earnestly Sri Bhagwan's Vichara One Mantra to which I have been able, by His Grace, to reduce all mantras, and I feel now, in retrospect, that indeed, this was the only pursuit, of all my myriad pursuits that happened in my life, worth pursuing:

MANTRA: WHEREVER I AM, WHATEVER I AM DOING, I DO NOT REALLY LIKE NOW TO STRAY AWAY FROM MYSELF.

Sri Paul Brunton:When Naharshi is engaged in giving 'tartaka' (EYE TO EYE CONTACT) to a devotee sometimes He actually becomes cross-eyed, with this curious difference that the right eye remains looking steadily ahead, whilst the left eye gazes at an oblique angle and the effect is rather weird and mysterious. First He lifts His Gaze to the ceiling and then slowly drops it to level before conveying trataka.

Dear devotees, why did Sri Bhagwan allow so many photographers, national as well as international ones, to click Him freely, without reservation, to their heart's contentment? Well, when one is drawn suddenly by the magnetic Gaze, overlooking the Photograph, one is welcome with the same Cross-Eye, Right Eye looking steadily ahead vacantly, He alone knows where , while the Left Eye gazes at an Oblique Angle. And My Goodness! the effect is not only weird and mysterious, but rather profound, bestowing Grace, and even an Experience of non-dual awareness, THE EXPANSE. Oh! Sri Bhagwan's Photographs convey to His devotees what devotees, in general, seek from their Jnana Guru! There should be no doubt about that.

Quote from my previous post:"one is welcome with the same Cross-Eye, Right Eye looking steadily ahead vacantly, He alone knows where , while the Left Eye gazes at an Oblique Angle. And My Goodness! the effect is not only weird and mysterious, but rather profound, bestowing Grace, and even an Experience of non-dual awareness, THE EXPANSE. Oh! Sri Bhagwan's Photographs convey to His devotees what devotees, in general, seek from their Jnana Guru! There should be no doubt about that."

Dear Devotees,

I wish to add that gazing into His Eyes is akin to invoking His Presence. Sri Bhagwan has taught that the real Grace of the Guru is the grant of the experience of existence-consciousness or Being. One becomes conscious of Being, that is, I should say, Being becomes conscious of Itself. And as I have understood, when Being is conscious of Itself, that is Presence!

Dear devotees, it is easy to discern at this stage that:THAT PRESENCE IS OUR OWN CONSCIOUS PRESENCE!

Why so? Because, in my view, that Presence would not be there without my own conscious presence. With love for Him in the heart and faith in His Teaching, we need to do Enquiry, go deeper rejecting thoughts and objects whenever they arise, and thus find out for ourselves, in the most scientific manner, for Sri Bhagwan has taught that sifting Reality from unreality is scientific enough.

Sri Bhagwan: The very thought that there is a thing as ego is wrong, because ego is I-thought and we are ourselves the Real 'I'. The thoughtless state is itself realisation.

Sri Bhagwan: The root of your difficulty lies in the confused commingling of two separate ideas into one: the 'I' and the 'body'. When you are aware of the chair, it is the thought subsequent to the primal one, 'I am the body'. The latter is the substratum of all your thoughts of the world experience. It arises first; then only can they come. Hence when it fails to arise--as in deep sleep--the world experience also fails to enter your consciousness. Now of these two ideas, the I-thought is the enduring one whereas the body-thought is a transient one. This is shown by dreams, where you still have the sense of 'I' but not awareness of physical body. Thus all your bodily experiences, and the world experiences which are linked up with them, are nothing else than what enters your mind. This is what I mean when I say that the mind is nothing but thoughts. The 'I' is the only real being because it is the only durable one. Find it after stopping the thoughts.

Dear Devotees,

Thus we see that the ego is a mere thought, though an I-thought, it is a thought after all, whereas 'We', devoid of thoughts, are the real, ever-standing real 'I', as Existence-Consciousness. In other words, ego is mere reflection of the Real Self in the mind which is but accumulation of insentient thoughts. Therefore, it follows that it is the thought that works up appearance in so many ways, and it is the thought therefore that creates the appearance of the body and the world.

How scientific indeed is Sri Bhagwan's Teaching! Sri Bhagwan has thus made it clear that the ego has its source from the Self and is not separate or apart from It. Sri Bhagwan has taught that the core of the ego is called the Heart, and therefore, the ego must only be traced in order that phantom-like, spurious, fleeting ego might merge in its source.

Dear devotees, you know that all thoughts can be traced to the I-thought. By now, we must have seen that thought or idea I--the idea of personality--is the root thought. If we therefore are able to hold the I-thought, other thoughts disappear, and if we push the enquiry further deep and trace the Source of the I-thought, the Self alone remains.

Dear devotees, Sri Bhagwan has also taught elsewhere that so long a devotee identifies the Guru with His Embodiment and himself with this block of a body, he should regard the Guru as the Self and himself as the individual self. In the beginning this came spontaneously to me and even I practiced this consciously. However, I no longer identify the Guru with the mortal form and myself with this block of a body anymore, and therefore, of late, my practice is to remain continually in the 'NOW' as the conscious presence, as far as possible, which enabled me to understand and grasp the Divine Presence, which is the same as the State of Mere Witness or mere Seer.

Q: You say that we shall find the divine centre inside us. If each individual has a centre are there then million of divine centres?Sri Bhagwan: There is only one Centre to which there is no circumference. Dive deep within and find it. Meditating on Him or on Seer, the Self, there is a mental vibration to which all are reduced. Tracing the source of I, the primal 'I-I' alone remains over; and it is inexpressible.

Q: Is there not an unchanging Self and a changing Self?Sri Bhagwan: The changefulness is mere thought. All thoughts arise after the arising of the I-thought. See to whom these thoughts arise. Then you transcend them and they subside. That is to say, tracing the source of the I-thought, you realise the perfect 'I-I'. I is the name of the Self.

Q: Do memory, sleep and death affect the I ? Sri Bhagwan: It is confusion due to non-differentiation between false and real 'I'. These three attributes and modes pertain to the false ego.

Vivekchudamani makes it clear that the artificial I of the vijnanamaya kosha is a projection and through it one must look to the true principle of 'I'.

Sri Bhagwan: "An ordinary Christian is only satisfied when told that God is in some far off heaven, not to be reached by us unaided, that Christ alone has known Him and he alone can save us. Hence when told the simple truth that the kingdom of heaven is within you, he is not satisfied and will read far- fetched meanings in the statement. Mature minds alone can grasp the simple truth in all its nakedness."

Q: Is Self-knowledge what Jesus meant by the expression 'Kingdom of Heaven'? Sri Bhagwan: Yes. Vedantins can understand Him.

How is God to be seen?Sri Bhagwan: Within. If the mind is turned inward, God manifests as the inner consciousness.

Dear Devotees,

There is only the Self or God, It Is That Which IS--here, there, everywhere--that is, all-pervading and Alone. Yes, there is no inside, outside, in, out, up, down, etc., in the Reality. For this reason He cannot be seen in a subject-object relationship by the mind as we understand it. He should be felt within. Sri Bhagwan has taught that conceiving God in everything and in all is only a mental operation, and therefore, is not real. CONSCIOUSNESS WITHIN, PURGED OF THE MIND, IS FELT AS GOD. Therefore, He should be known within, and remember, KNOWING IS BEING.

Dear devotees, if the Self or God is all-pervading, why can He be not found everywhere? Because, in my view, He cannot be found as an object outside us. Seat of Realisation is said to be within because we cannot find Him by the objective consciousness, objectively, in the state of relativity or duality, outside of ourselves. That Seat is our Core which is Pure Bliss. Hence, It is called the HEART! Sri Bhagwan has taught that the only useful purpose of this birth is to realise That in the Heart, which is the Seat of Bliss, and there is really nothing else, worth doing.

"Fear not! Thou art the Self! Be That! Mere mental figments are 'far' and 'near'. No room for doubt in the Self, so need not worry whether Path is right or not. Fear and doubt are only in path unknown. The Path Itself will teach you right."

Searching and finding the Sun in the firmament is not all that difficult. All we need do is to turn our sight in the direction of the Sun, or catch its rays and trace it to its source, that is, the Sun. Self is the Sun and individual or the objective consciousness is the ray. All we need do is to turn within, hold the I-ness in us and trace it to its Source, that is, the Self. So, Sri Bhagwan says that the Path itself will teach us right. Danger lies in the path unknown.

The Path itself is simple, perfectly rational and easy to grasp and follow, wherever one is, and whatever one is doing:

Mind is tangible. In fact it does not exist. The surest way of control, is to seek it. Then its activities cease.Talk-- 194

Seek the mind. On being sought, it will disappear. The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is a thinker. The thinker is the ego. The ego, if sought, will vanish automatically. The ego and the mind are the same. Talk--195

The ego is the root thought from which all other thoughts arise. Dive within. You are now aware that the mind rises from within. SO SINK WITHIN AND SEEK. You need not eliminate the wrong I. How can 'I' eliminate itself? All that you need do is to find out its origin and abide there. Your efforts can extend only thus far. Then the beyond will take care of itself. You are helpless there. No effort can reach itTalk--197

Such surest way of controlling the mind by seeking it was not known to me before I came to Sri Bhagwan. Sri Bhagwan says that the individual cannot exist without the Self but the Self can exist without the individual. We are the Self, and therefore, loss of individuality is only imagined, for is there really an individual ?

Dear devotees, today I wish to post some of the Verses from the GVK in which some of the Verses have been composed by Sri Bhagwan Himself, as following:

When the reality that is known as the Heart gradually emerges from the Heart and expands as consciousness, it takes many thousands names, the foremost of these will be found to be 'I'. V. 712, GVK, Sri D. Godman

The aforementioned 'I' takes the foremost position among the innumerable names of God. Since it exists along with 'am' in everyone's heart, as the ever-present Self-experience, as 'I am', the revelation of beingness, the true import of that 'I', that name 'am' also attains the foremost place. V. 713, GVK, Sri D. Godman

When you investigate you find that parabhakti (supreme devotion) and jnana are identical in revealing swarupa. To claim that, out of these two, one is but the means to the other is due to not knowing the real nature of either. V. 722, GVK, Sri D. Godman

Sri Bhagwan: As Ishwara exists as the Self, meditating on the Self is devotion to the Supreme God. V. 13, GVK

And now a few Words of Grace as given in GVK:

Sri Bhagwan: The eternal, unbroken, natural state of abiding in the Self is Jnana. To abide in the Self you must love the Self. Since God is verily the Self, love of the Self is love of God; and that is bhakti.

Sri Bhagwan: TO KNOW ONESELF WITHOUT ATTRIBUTES, IS TO KNOW GOD, SINCE GOD SHINES AS THE SELF.

Sri Bhagwan: Through nama-japa, the person who owns the name is reached. If a person does not have firm faith in the name of any gods, but only has a LONGING to know himself, he can enquire into the word 'I'. For the thinking mind that is intent upon enquiring into the Self, 'I' is like a name. At this stage of practice, self-enquiry is the thinking of a name or a japa.

And a revealing conversation from Sar Darshana Bhashya:

Q: But isn't the Guru's Grace or God's Grace necessary for one's progress in the vichara?Sri Bhagwan: Yes. But the vichara that you are making is itself the Guru's Grace or God's Grace.Q: Then I can dispense with outside help and by my own effort get into the deeper truth by myself?Sri Bhagwan: True. But the very fact that you are possessed of the quest for the Self is a manifestation of the divine Grace, arul. It is effulgent in the Heart, the inner being, the real Self. It draws you from within. You have to get in from without. Your attempt is vichara, the deep inner movement is Grace. That is why I say there is no real vichara without Grace nor is there Grace ACTIVE for him who is without vichara. Both are necessary.

Dear devotees, I wish to only say that when one has longing to know oneself, and gets into Enquiry by His Grace, such a one's mind is still a chattering or a thinking mind. Therefore, in the initial stage of enquiry, in my view, is in the form of nama-japa. However, the name in such nama-japa is the Original Name of God, that is, 'I'. As Enquiry progresses, as inwardness is achieved, and as one is more or less off the thought-waves, one partakes more and more of the consciousness aspect and less and less of the insentient forms. And one thus reaches the State of Real Vichara. So, Sri Bhagwan taught: YOUR ATTEMPT IS VICHARA, THE DEEP INNER MOVEMENT IS GRACE.

Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi set the thought process in motion by asking the seekers to put to themselves two questions 'Who am I?' and 'Whence am I?'. The Vichara Marga of the Path of self enquiry is UNVEILED to the seeker of truth by these two simple questions. Adi Sankara in the memorable song Bhaja Govindam asked the same questions.Kastavam--Who are you?Koham--Who am I?Kuta Ayatah---Where from have I come?While study of scriptures affords knowledge, the enquiry into 'I' provides personal direct experience. As one advances in this experience, he realises Self-knowledge. This is the unique contribution that Bhagwan has made to the jnana marga.

Sri R. Venkataraman, Former President of India

All questions that trouble the seeker are reducible, and should be reduced, to the one question, 'Who am I?' Ultimately the question 'Who am I?' will lead to the discovery and realisation of the Self, the winning of the egoless state in which there are no questions and no answers but only silence, ONLY THE CALM JOY OF PURE BEING. Prof. Sri K. Swaminathan from his article 'The Greatest Teacher The World Has seen.'

To everyone who asked He unhesitatingly gave the advice to MEDITATE ON THE SELF, WORSHIP THE SELF AND KNOW THE SELF. This is because, according to Vedanta, there is nothing worth knowing, hearing or seeing except one?s true Self. One who was and is Sri Ramana is this true eternal truth beyond all time, having neither beginning nor end. Therefore, the path in quest of truth shown by Him will remain accessible to all for a long time to come, because He proclaimed absolute truth which remains unobstructed at all times, in all places and under all conditions..............................................Those who loved the Maharshi got from Him the true supreme bliss attained by means of Jnana, Yoga and Bhakti. This means that from Him one got the essence of all spiritual practices. That is why I call Him One who plays (rameti iti ramana). He is the ever-adorable Great Soul. Swami Sri Muktananda

Dear devotees how true! Yes, those who love Him get the essence of all spiritual practices whatever. If one has indeed grasped His Atma-vichara and practiced it whole-heartedly, I have no doubt whatsoever that such a one will understand Jnana, Yoga, Bhakti et al, for His Atma-vichara is inclusive of all. Such a one will hardly, in my view, feel the need to search for anyone else and anywhere else. First, one needs to do a little but profound enquiry, and then see for oneself the veracity of truth mentioned in almost all His books, and if one still feels the need to visit so many sages and saints, and who still wishes to move around ashrams all over the world, in search of Grace, who cares or stops such a one ? Once a devotee came to Sri Bhagwan and was the recipient of His Grace. He bought only the booklet 'Who am I?' from the book-depot, and when advised that he should buy a few more, He replied, 'This is enough'.

Dear Devotees, Self is God. Self is Love. Self is Grace. Self is all. In my view, it follows from this that MEDITATION ON THE SELF, WORSHIP OF THE SELF AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE SELF ARE ONLY THE MANIFESTATION OF LOVE AND GRACE. . Pranam, Anil

You ask me how long I had to persevere in solitude before I attained peace......Surely peace is a thing which grows and is not for the majority attained in a flash once and for all, (I do not speak of Self-realisation). The moment I came into the presence of my Guru, eleven years ago, I found peace. My staying here was never premeditated; it was just something which had to be in spite of myself. It was my true home. However, the pendulum swings, in time the beats grow shorter and shorter until it comes to rest in the Self. To expect anything else is to expect the impossible. It seems to me that the great thing is to follow one Guru and one path unwaveringly and the goal is assured. For after all, the Goal and the path are the same; the Chinese call both the Way-Tao. But we become disheartened and impatient. These seem to be the two greatest obstacles to attainment. If we can only face up to these and go on in spite of everything and everybody then there is absolutely no doubt as to the result. But how few of us can! May Guru give us the necessary strength!

Dear devotees, well, this is the echo of my own deep feeling. Nature of the pendulum is to swing, and so is the nature of the mind to swing to and fro and to graze objects outside. As in time the beat of the pendulum grows shorter and shorter until it comes to rest, so also, in time, mind learns to take in luscious fodder (Peace and Bliss at the Core) readily and verily available at its own Stall (Core or the Self), and thus its tendency to graze external objects is lessened, and with perseverance comes to rest or merge in the Self. Therefore, indeed, in my view also, the great thing is the fidelity to one's Guru who bestows peace and ananda, and if His Teaching is followed unwaveringly and steadfastly, with perseverance, attainment of the Goal is certainly assured, as has been voiced by Sri Chadwick and so many other great, old devotees. If we can face up to the sarcasms of anyone, and if we can go on in spite of every obstacle and everybody, there is no doubt as to the result. Therefore, dear devotees, in my view, fidelity to one's Guru, persevering in His Path unwaveringly and longing to know oneself, that is, the Atma-swarupa, are the three things which are necessary to realise the Fullness of one's Being.

Yes, what is there to elaborate ? The most self-evident experience and knowledge that each one of us has is only and only 'I am'. Isn't it? This alone is our pure state of being. That is, even to deny this, first you have to be, even before a single thought arises, you are. Even if you are not thinking anything, you are. Are you not? Whether memory of 'anil' or 'so and so' is present in the mind or not , 'I am' consciousness is ever-present. Nothing is apart and independent of the consciousness. So, if one has enquired as to who one really is and made some progress, the 'I am' consciousness, which is calm state of our pure being, is not elusive, and this means thoughts and thoughts of objects have been successfully separated from the pure state of one's being by Sri Bhagwan's Atma-vichara. Then 'I am' alone remains which witnesses and knows all activities of the mind. Vigilance means only this: one watches passively the rising of thoughts in Oneself at its very point of rising and is resolved then and verily there.

Therefore, what I mean by the Mantra is only that I do not now like to swerve away from Vichara which is also the Goal. Holding 'I am' with effort is our 'praytana' or effort. When the same happens effortlessly, it is Realisation.

Hence the Mantra: Keep coming to 'yourself', that is, to Atma-Swarupa, free of thoughts and emotions and intellect.

Dear friend, you have named yourself 'Hillablaze'. This means you have arrived! Therefore, I should say, 'See the Hill Ablaze' within, for it is our Core, that is, the Centre of our Existence. Path itself is the Light. Pursue it with love unwaveringly, for there can never be disappointment in Sri Bhagwan's Supreme Path.

Sri Bhagwan often pointedly taught that the Reality was here and now. It does not have to descend from some far away region at some future date. It is 'Now'. If one practices Sri Bhagwan's Atma-vichara with love, one intuitively begins to sense and grasp, soon enough, the true import of 'Now' which transcends even the present. I can now say beyond an iota of doubt that the true import of 'I' is but the true import of 'Now' and vice-versa. 'Now' is palpable when there is only 'I am', bereft of all adjuncts and superimpositions whatsoever. In other words, in my understanding, 'Now' is 'I am'. Sri A. R. Natarajan has written in the introduction to the beautiful book 'Forever is in the Now' thus:

Sri A. R. Natarajan: 'Forever' is in the 'Now'. What do we mean? The 'now' is not used in the sense of the present tense in contrast to past tense or future tense. 'Now' refers to a 'timeless' quality. It is an unmoving stillness. The flow of life in terms of our relationships to people, ideas and events does not disturb that stillness. And in that stillness the current of vast joy is always the substratum.

Dear devotees, we may remember here Sri Bhagwan's Teaching that living in the past or dwelling on the future, unmindful of the present, is like counting without the number one. This is because all experiences, as we know, happen in the present, in the 'Now'. Therefore, 'Now' is said to be the 'open sesame' for being in tune with the eternity and realise the ever-present Atma-swarupa.

It is easy to understand and grasp that if our mind is to hold only onto the present, all its back and forth movements, in the past as well as the future, have to be somehow switched off.

Sri Bhagwan gave us an infallible means to attain only that. To enable us to switch off the back and forth movements of the mind, Sri Bhagwan has taught that if the focus of attention is maintained as spiritual practice on the individual or the subject rather than on objects, such conscious and concerted focus opens up the path for an 'INNER SPIRITUAL JOURNEY'. Therefore, 'Now' holds the key for attaining subjective awareness and for discovering the surging, abundant joy of the 'Fullness of Being' or of our own Natural State.

Sri Bhagwan: The pictures move on a screen in a cinema show, but does the screen itself move? No. The PRESENCE is the screen: you, I and others are the pictures. The individuals may move but not the Self.Source: Mountain Path

Sri Shantananda Puri: The sole Reality is the infinite inner space of Self-awareness. The final and absolute truth is that there is pure awareness alone which is real. Unless this truth is learnt by the individual jiva, there is no way of getting out of this mega delusion.Sadhana from Guru Vachaka Kovai

Dear devotees, the understanding that the infinite inner space of SELF-AWARENESS is the only Reality is, in my view, a great Clue on the Path of Atma-vichara. Anil